Israeli settlers torched on Thursday evening Palestinian Olive Orchards near the Homesh evacuated settlement, west of the northern West Bank city of Nablus. Ghassan Douglas, in charge of settlements file at the Palestinian Authority in the northern part of the West Bank, stated that a number of extremist Israeli settlers set fire to dozens of trees in Khallit Awwana area, near the evacuated settlement of Homesh.
Douglas added that the area in question is off-limits to the Palestinians as the army considers it a closed military zone while dozens of extremist settlers still live there although the settlement itself was evacuated by Israel.
Homesh settlement was evacuated in 2005 as part of the Disengagement Plan implemented by the then-Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon.
All settlers were evacuated from the Gaza Strip and four small settlements in the northern West Bank were also evacuated. Most of the settlers who were evacuated from Gaza are now living in settlements in the occupied West Bank.
